What This Blog Also Isn’t About

In my previous post, I made
it clear that this blog is not about “saving the planet”,
even though it is about the environment. This post is about avoiding
the opposite extreme, as portrayed in Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of
the Valley of the Wind:Image courtesy of Wikipedia
This classic film is set in a post-apocalyptic future long after the
collapse of modern industrial civilization. Humanity has reverted to a medieval state, with rival kingdoms battling each other for dwindling natural resources. The closest thing that this film has to an antagonist is the Toxic Jungle, an expanding rainforest-like biome
filled with creatures that have evolved to actively hunt down any
human beings who are unfortunate enough to be in its way. However,
even the Toxic Jungle has redeeming qualities, as it is revealed that
it is part of a natural cleansing process meant to eradicate
centuries of pollution.

In reality, the effects of climate change will not be anything like the Toxic Jungle in the film. Nature doesn’t hold a grudge against our species; if we are unable to solve our environmental problems, we
will simply be allowed to pass into the fossil record, like so many
species that have come before us.